Every March I think back to when I was little...we always had a big garden...or at least to me it seemed as though it was HUGE. Every March, usually around the 17th, my mom would start many plants by seed. My dad would bring home peat pots, potting soil and many packages of different kinds of seeds... green beans, corn, tomatoes, onions, leaf lettuce, peppers, rhubarb and tons of flowers. When I was old enough, I loved to help my mom...we would start the tomato and peppers indoors first. I'm sure the first few times I "helped" her it was more mess making than actual help. But, she let me do everything with her. We put all of the little seed pots on a card table covered them with a dark plastic garbage bag to keep the soil moist and warm...and then every day we would sit it in front of the living room "picture" window to soak up the warmth from the sun that streamed in.
Oh how excited I would get when the seedlings began to pop their little heads up out of the soil. I looked forward to watering them every single day. And, once the seedlings got their second set of leaves, we'd mix up
Miracle Grow and give them a good dose...man alive, did they ever take off after that!
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| Courtesy of Comstock's Catalog |
To keep them from getting "spindly" (tall and skinny), as my mother would say, we would begin taking them outside during the day to "harden" them up a bit. And, after the last frost, my dad would get out his old garden tiller and get the soil ready for planting the garden...we usually planted a lot of the garden on Good Friday...not quite sure why. Maybe it's because my dad had the day off and could be there to help my mom....I know there was an old wive's tale about the fact you were supposed to plant potatoes on Good Friday...But, from everything I've read, that tale is a
bust...and shouldn't be followed. We would transplant the seedlings that were, by then, large leafy plants, into the ground...and mom would also plant beans, corn, onions, leaf lettuce, dill and cucumber seeds directly into the soil. My dad was responsible for planting the potatoes and also tending to the apple trees and the grape vines...I was there to help plant and then helping my mother weed the garden using a hoe every few days.
And then, late in the summer just before school started, we would have marathon canning sessions. We would pick the produce in the late afternoon and then wait until around 10 - 11 pm to begin the canning process. You see, we lived in the mountains and, at that time, our little house did not have air conditioning. How in the world we lived without it is beyond me. I guess it's because we spent so much of the hot summer days outdoors. Firing up the canner would make the entire house so incredibly hot...so, we'd wait until the coolest part of the day which was nighttime. That always seemed so exciting to me...to get to stay up almost all night working in the kitchen with my mom was so much fun! Would give anything to be able to have that experience with her now that I am an adult.
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| Courtesy of Comstock's Catalog |
So...it's about this time every year I order my seeds for a very tiny kitchen garden...I received the most beautifully done catalog yesterday from
Comstock, Ferre & Co...even if you're not a gardener, you should
request a copy...the photos and illustrations are lovely. This
company specializes in
heirloom seeds. I've never planted heirloom veggies so I've decided to give it a try...here's what I've ordered:
St. Valery Carrots
Jimmy Nardello Peppers
Bull Nose Peppers
Rhubarb
New England Pie Pumpkins
Connecticut Field Pumpkins
Winter Luxury Pumpkins
Bonnie Best Tomatoes
Chives
Dill
Cabbage
Ball's Orange Calendula
Persian Carpet Zinnia
Peppermint Stick Zinnia
Mammoth Russian Sunflowers
Can hardly wait for my order to arrive...even though I love the winter months desperately, since we're obviously not going to have a winter this year, I'm ready to get started with spring! Planning my garden takes me back to much happier times when my mom and I could still do things together. Having my own garden and managing it the same she did her own, helps me feel a little closer to her...something I've missed for a long long time.
